Coffee Consultant & Swedish Coffee Roasting Champion

My name is Anthony Huy Nguyen and I am 30 years old. I was born in Saigon South Vietnam, also known as “Ho Chi Minh City”. The name of my hometown, “Saigon”, brings me back to many of my blurry, but touching childhood memories. I am now living with my wife and daughter in Gothenburg, Sweden. Gothenburg is the city where I have continued my coffee carrier and been active as a barista and roaster since 2012. I am working with coffee in many ways, but people usually recognize me for being the coffee manager at the cozy coffee shop Alkemisten. I am also the founder of the consulting firm “The Coffee Connections” and of a coffee roastery called “Ritu Coffee Roastery” together with Kristian Hedborg (Kristian is the owner of the coffee shop Alkemisten). 


I love freedom and I am always aiming for higher and higher goals wherever I am in life. I have lived in many different cities and countries all over the word and I both love discovering more and sharing my experiences and what I have learned with others. I started my journey 12 years ago, by travelling across Vietnam. After Vietnam I continued travelling in Asia and ended up studying and living to Australia. After that, I moved to Germany to continue my coffee business and lastly, I ended up in Sweden, where I am today with my family.


As a barista working in coffee shops all over the world, I met many people with from different countries and with different cultures. I have tried to learn as much as possible from the amazing opportunity to meet so many people from different cultures. I love to work as a barista! I think it is funny how intimate working as a barista can be, there is some consumers that started out as strangers that are now people I see everyday, that became friends. I think it is an honor to get to know someone by being a part of their daily routine. Every person I have meet at as a barista has different way of seeing life and they always have interesting things to learn and listen to. 


I am not only interested in coffee, I also love wine, Japanese whiskey and sushi. But nothing is as amusing for me as coffee is. Coffee has a special place in my heart. Drinking coffee is my form of meditation, it helps me to clean my thoughts and focus my mind. When it comes to coffee, every sip is an astonishing experience and an emotional journey. 


My interest for coffee started by being fascinated of my friends who could make latte art with beautiful designs, but at that time I had absolutely no concept of coffee flavor, I even thought that coffee was a little bitter. But thanks to my peers and instructors, I gradually discovered more about the taste experience and realized that coffee is capable of having over 1,000 different flavors and twice as much as wine. My interest grew and I decided to go to Australia to study more about being Barista and learning about how to roast coffee. My interest grew and grew and I constantly participated in all Barista, Brewer, Cup taster, Aeropress, Latte Art, Roaster Championship to learn from competitions. I went to any event that had anything to do with coffee. But my extreme interest finally paid off, I won the Swedish Coffee Roasting Champion 2019, Swedish Barista of All Barista 2019 and the Swedish representative visited the 2019 World Championship, which I am so happy for. I am still trying to improve and to love for ways to move forward and develop. I am therefore today one of the national coffee judges in Sweden, Finland and Vietnam. I think it is interesting to change perspective sometimes and to be behind the bench instead in front of it, to learn and develop outside my comfort zone.